From: Mother Jones

“The US is helpless and Europe won’t touch this,” Bearden added. “Russia is feeling its oats. And yes, Georgia is George Bush’s beacon for liberty in the Caucasus. What’s he going to do? The Russians know one thing: how to count the cards. They know that not one of these chickens” will do anything.

It almost passes belief to think that the Bush administration, bogged down in two wars and planning a third (with Iran), might move toward a confrontation with Russia. Yet that is what the White House appears to be doing. The August 11 Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that

President Bush called the violence unacceptable and Vice President Dick Cheney…said Russia’s actions in Georgia “must not go unanswered”…

Asked to explain Cheney’s comment, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said, “It means it must not stand.”

That phrase should send cold chills down the back of every American. It precisely echoes President George H.W. Bush’s statement in response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, a statement that led to war. The White House cannot be unaware of the parallel, which means it is threatening war with Russia.

Have these people gone utterly mad? It is doubtful we should risk nuclear war for Alabama, much less Georgia.

In my cynical life, she has injected optimism and a better outlook. In my anger, she has injected balance. In my complete disregard for authority… well, I think I’m actually influencing her in that area.

All of that said, and it isn’t much, I know, but, in the end, I love my wife more than anyone in this world because she has loved me when I was unlovable; cared for me when I was kind as a cactus; she has edified me when I thought I wasn’t worth existing… much less edifying.  Plus, we’ve made some great babies together.

I love you, Celeste, more than you know and more than I say.

Have you done your patriotic duty and talked to a member of the Taiwanese Independence movement lately? Did you reenact the Tank Man scene with your American Legion compatriots last weekend? Every morning you unfold and hang Old Glory along with the Tibetan colors from you balcony, right?

If you didn’t march against the Iraq war, against warrantless wiretapping, against the persecution of the polygamist sect in Texas, or against the millions of other coercive actions enacted by the state each year, then you probably shouldn’t trot around on your midget pony.

**snicker** midget pony…

Read on:

And so you climb into your Honda hybrid, whose parts were forged in Changchun and Guangzhou – China.

On the way you stop by Wal-Mart (China’s 8th largest trading partner) and purchase a megaphone (assembled in China) and an American flag (stitched in China).

You finally arrive with your compatriots and are quickly shuffled behind some chain-link fences by riot police. You pull out your cell phone (assembled in China) to send a status update to your Twitter and Facebook accounts (which reside on hardware assembled in China). You feel proud that you’re telling everyone how evil and anti-human the Chi-Coms are – while you fumble around your pocket to find your camera (made in China).

Heroically you fight the elements underneath your umbrella (made in China) all afternoon long. And after an energetic day of screaming about China’s responsibility for ungreen environmentalism (1/3 of China’s carbon emissions are purportedly tied to creating exports: your productive tanning bed and cappuccino machine) you call it a day and declare a win for human rights activism.

So my question is: did you have a fun time hanging out in the government-restricted free-speech zones?

Oooooo — burn!!!

I’ll stop the quotations there and let you go read the read of the post on the hypocrisy of the Chinese protestors by Tim Swanson.